Thoughts on the UK's general election

The year is 2024. The UK -by any measure a developed country inhabited by "well educated" people- is still grappling with Brexit, the single biggest act of self-harm that any democratic society ever brought on itself thus far in the 21st Century. The U.S. and the election of Donald Trump ran a close second. Russia's war of agression against the Ukraine (another example of derangement at the highest levels) can't be compared for two simple reasons: 1) Russia is not a democracy, and therefore 2) Russians were never consulted on whether they approved Vladimir Putin's plan to forcefully ostracise the country from the established world order.

Brexit brought about and imposed a cataclysmic economic decline. The imbeciles that voted for it were the first victims, of course, alas little satisfaction can be derived from that sort of karma. Millions of people are unemployed, under employed in the gig economy, on zero hour contracts and going hungry in this country. Then "Recent findings from UNICEF’s review of child poverty in 39 OECD and EU countries show that child poverty has increased faster in the UK than in any other country investigated."

Amazingly, nobody will mention it. No politician will say that because of the sheer stupidity and misplaced chauvinism of 52% of the British electorate generations are suffering, and will have to continue suffering the consequences. Leaders of the Tory Party, otherwise known in popular culture as the "party of the economy", have taken turns since 2010 to wreck the economy to extreme extents.

First it was George Osborne, with his attempt to "balance the books." Balancing the books, for Osborne, David Cameron & co, meant destroying societal safety nets like council housing, the police, education and health. Thousands were dismissed and budgets were guted at all levels. Repercussions arrived quickly: councils were forced into bankruptcy, 20,000 less police officers caused a huge spike in all types of crime across the UK, lack of nurses and funding for the NHS caused thousands of unnecesary health complications and deaths, and practically the totality of the UK's education system at primary and secondary level suffers from lack of staff.

David Cameron didn't have the guts to tell the Eurosceptics within his party to fuck off, and called for the Brexit referendum. That took care of the rest.

Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak made certain that Brexit would get done. For a time, the party's motto was "Brexit means Brexit" and "Get Brexit done". None attempted to salvage the failing UK economy. Quite the contrary, they made it a badge of honor to completely and utterly eviscerate any vestige of hope in getting a benefitial trade compromise with the EU. Their chancellors did nothing to prop things up internally. It was another case of doing the exact opposite, as demonstrated by Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget.

While this constellation of deranged sociopaths were busy destroying everything on their sights, COVID and the Russian invasion of Ukraine happened. A consequence of having such "gifted" leaders is that the UK ended up with one of the highest number of deaths. Many people died unnecesarily due to absurd policy decisions taken by a bunch of politicians that complied with none of the rules, while ensuring that billions of pounds worth of emergency procurement would go, without bidding, to their friends and donors.

Russia's war of aggression prompted higher energy prices across the board. The decision in many European countries was to impose price controls, so that energy companies would not capitalise on extraordinary circumstance. Not in the UK, where successive Tory government allowed energy companies to act like a cartel, levelling prices up without regard for consumers. Again, the mandatory introduction of "price caps" managed the feat of boosting the profits of energy companies to unseen levels, at the detriment of the population. A normal household went from paying £50 / month to £300 / month.

Mortgages trippled. Insurance companies also copied very quikly energy companies' cartel behaviour and increased premiums to unexplainable levels. Post COVID, the "party of the economy" is fully responsibe for the UK's lack of growth compared to G20 / G7 countries. Recessions and inflation persisted longer than in similar economies, bringing a cost of living crisis that has affected virtually every household. Neither rents, nor food, clothing, and fuel prices have returned to pre-pandemic levels. None of it matters though, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are said to have "overseen the largest set of tax rises since the Second World War".

Since 2010, when the Conservatives won the election, a series of scandals have demonstrated that this lot is not fit to govern. Corruption is as prevalent, brazen and rampant in the UK as it is in Venezuela. In fact, utterly corrupt Venezuelans have made the UK their favourite base, and some have even donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Tory Party, which pretty much like Switzerland, never saw a dollar it didn't like. Gone are the days when anyone could take David Cameron's "We've got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain... Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world," quip seriously, in light of his own affairs with Lex Greensill.

Rishi Sunak recently called for a surprise general election without informing most of his cabinet, but some of his trusted advisors knew before hand and placed bets that could earn them, erm... "Since he stood to gain just £500, it is not so much the greed of it that stands out as the bovine stupidity of risking his reputation and jeopardising his boss’s campaign for such a relatively trivial sum."

That's the caliber of people proposing themselves as a valid alternative here. Stupidity, religion, fanaticism, ideology, chauvinism, racism, ignorance... these however are not character treats that will abandon parts of the electorate any time soon. The fact that the Tories -and others much worse like Nigel Farage- are still part of the conversation, are still invited and courted by the media, are still given platforms, and are still considered as alternatives makes me think that there's nothing "developed" about this country. It's as if people have forgotten what they have lived through since 2010, as if it never happened. A similar scenario would be that of my home country (Venezuela), where chavismo still presents itself as a viable option.

Beyond the Tories' austerity measures that pushed millions of families into entirely avoidable poverty, people in the UK seem to have forgotten that Boris Johnson tried to suspend parliament, that very parliament whose sovereignty and independence Brexiteers were purportedly so adamant in reestablishing. The Tories have also promoted and showcased some of the most racist politicians any developed, self respecting democracy has seen. How to forget Priti Patel, or Suella Braverman's (do note their names and ethnic backgrounds) views on immigrants? The Conservatives, it turns out, share another treat with Hugo Chavez: they think it is possible to turn fantasies into reality by decree. Indeed, Rishi Sunak (another quintesentially Tory name) is responsible for having made unlawful for courts to hear or challenge his government's decisions on deportation of immigrants to Rwanda. That is, in the Conservatives regime (i.e. the establishment) of one of the world's "leading democracies" the Executive eliminated separation of powers, invalidated the preeminence of the courts and voided its decisions on an issue that is only relevant to a tiny minority of people that don't have to worry about where the next mortgage / rent payment is coming from.

For those who don't know the story, one good day the Tories took a page out of Vladimir Putin's governance manual and decided that Rwanda was the ideal destination to deport immigrants that arrive in the UK. They then ruled that Rwanda was a "safe country". The courts, of course, took a different view and decided against the measure. The Tories' reaction? Invalidate court's decisions on the matter, decree that courts could no longer hear anything related to the Rwanda bill, and claim that the UK would decidedly ignore parts of the Human Rights Act and the European Convention of Human Rights that interfere with its Rwanda policy.

I am an immigrant. I can imagine myself, arriving in this country with my family in a desperate attempt to escape chavismo, and be deported to Rwanda by the "compassionate" Conservative government of Rishi Sunak. Absurd doesn't even begin to cover it...

I have been living in this country for over 24 years now, and while it will come as a surprise to my longtime readers I have to say that I can no longer entertain sterile debates about rightwing-leftwing politics. There's only right and wrong. That's it. That's all. What I have seen here is a set of deeply flawed chancers, taking advantange of equally flawed institutions for personal benefit, just like in Venezuela. The UK is not different. Another government will be formed after 4th of July, unrealizable promises are already being made, a few will benefit but I fear the majority will unfortunately continue bearing the brunt of decisions taken by people that have no connection and no interest in reality. UK institutions will continue being populated by people like Paula Vennells, Rishi Sunak or Michael Gove. They might sound different, and wear a red tie / dress instead of blue, but make no mistake: once the rot gets hold, there's no coming back. The tragedy, for hard working people, is that the moral rot is like COVID and affects everyone, whether it is believed to be real or not.

Voto castigo (punishment vote) is a term used in Spanish to describe what's about to happen in Britain. It is always difficult to predict accurately the electorate's sheer disgust towards a ruling party after terrible successive governments. I think I can confidently say that if Venezuela had fair elections chavismo would be thrown out for very many years. Since the UK still has fair elections, the hope is that the Conservatives will be relegated to third position in the General Election, so that they can spend the next decade figuring out what went wrong, or not: for many, it would be a real pleasure to see them disappear altogether.